Tillman sharp, Davis homers in win over Yanks

Righty strikes out five in five-plus innings; Yoon tosses scoreless inning in debut

By
Brittany Ghiroli
MLB.com

SARASOTA, Fla. -- In front of their largest home crowd this spring season, the Orioles edged a split-squad Yankees team, 2-1, on Saturday afternoon at Ed Smith Stadium.

With a good chunk of New York's team in Panama for an exhibition game with the Marlins, Orioles starter Chris Tillman -- the club's likely Opening Day pitcher -- fared well. Yankees starter Vidal Nuno and Tillman put up hitless innings for the first thee frames, with longtime Oriole and current New York second baseman Brian Roberts breaking through for a one-out single in the fourth.

Suk-min Yoon threw a scoreless seventh inning in his Orioles debut, getting a pair of flyouts and ground ball after he allowed a leadoff single to Ramon Flores.

Delmon Young had two hits for the Orioles, including a double to lead off the seventh inning off Mark Montgomery. Pinch-runner Jemile Weeks stole third and scored on red-hot Jonathan Schoop's sacrifice fly.

Tillman, the first Baltimore starter to pitch at least five full innings this spring, lost his shutout bid on Francisco Arcia's leadoff homer in the sixth, which ended Tillman's afternoon. Tillman allowed three hits and was replaced by lefty Zach Britton, who allowed one hit and picked up a strikeout over a scoreless inning.

"You've got to prepare like it is a real game," Tillman said. "I knew what I wanted to work on today -- mix it up just like I would in a normal game. We are getting close. You have to dial it up a little bit."

Chris Davis tied it up with a two-out solo homer in the sixth. The Orioles' reigning home run king, Davis went deep off Danny Burawa for his third this spring. Davis also gave the Orioles their first hit with a two-out single in the fourth, which was the only hit Nuno allowed. The righty walked one and struck out three in the dominant outing.

"Everything was working today, just being confident," Nuno said. "It's just having the confidence in all my pitches working and just going out there to just have fun."

Orioles reliever Darren O'Day issued a leadoff walk in the eighth and Taylor Dugas doubled down the left-field line, but the righty then struck out the next three hitters to keep the score intact.

Up next: Miguel Gonzalez will take the mound for the Orioles on Sunday in Dunedin against the Blue Jays. Bullpen hopefuls Brad Brach, Steve Johnson and Alfredo Aceves are also slated to pitch in the 1:05 p.m. ET game on Gameday Audio.